An experiment was conducted to evaluate the combined effect of certain proteinic by-products i.e. mustard cake (MC), sesame cake (SC), raw guar (cluster bean) meal (GM) and cotton seed cake (CSC) as three or four at a time in broiler diet. In all 13 experimental diets were formulated based on these by-products, replacing groundnut cake of control diet partially. The trial in two replicates per treatment (19–20 chicks/replicate) was conducted on 513 broiler chicks in starting (0–6 weeks) and finishing (6–8 weeks) phases. The overall gains in live weight amongst different dietary treatments were similar (P>0.05). However, feed intake on various diets were significantly different (P<0.05). Higher feed intake than GNC based control was only recorded in the treatments containing 5% MC, 7.5% SC, 7.5% GM and 4 or 8% CSC in starting and finishing diets. The efficiency of feed conversion was higher in treatment T3 (5% MC + 7.5% SC + 5.0% GM), which was statistically similar to control, T2 (10%MC + 15% SC + 2.5%GM), T4 (5% MC + 15% SC + 7.5% GM), and T10 (5% MC + 7.5 SC + 5.0% GM + 4% CSC). Protein efficiency and performance indices were statistically similar in all the treatment. It was concluded that different proteinic by-products can be used to replace traditional ingredients but their effective concerted level for maximum performance needs to be established through growth trials.
Broiler feeding, cottonseed cake, guar meal, mustard cake, sesame cake
